Sri Lanka tsunami suffering may inspire Sting song

Report in the Daily News, Colombo


COLOMBO, Wednesday (Reuters) Pop icon Sting has been deeply moved by the suffering of Sri Lankan children who lost parents to Asia's tsunami and may pen a song about the island's worst natural disaster, his wife said on Wednesday.

Sting and his actress wife Trudie Styler, who is an ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), are visiting devastated seaside towns and villages along Sri Lanka's tsunami-battered southern coast.

"Sting ... has been very moved and saddened by the plight of the people in Sri Lanka," Styler told Reuters by telephone from the remains of the southern fishing town of Hambantota. "What he has seen will definitely influence his work, a song in the future maybe."

Sting was to visit Sri Lanka as a part of his world tour earlier this year, but the gig was called off after the Dec. 26 tsunami ploughed into the island's palm-fringed south, east and nothern coastline killing nearly 40,000 people.

"A song or a performance, in whatever way Sting can help, he will always be there," Styler said. "(It) is going to take the rest of our lifetime and more to rebuild the countries that have been affected."